March 2021 - Parks & Recreation - 27

rail-to-trail projects and spans the
country, including those shown in
the table to the right.
In its second decade, SITES
promises to use its growing influence as a municipal governance
tool with the goal of codifying NRPA's Three Pillars - Health and
Wellness, Equity, and Conservation - into local policy. A recent
journal article by Frederick Steiner,
" Landscape governance: the prospects for the SITES rating system "
(tinyurl.com/yxufjsog), highlights
how New York City, Chicago and
Atlanta, as well as the state of
Rhode Island and the U.S. General Services Administration, look to
SITES as a policy tool for guiding
sustainable landscape development
to protect and restore ecosystem
services.
The local government value of
SITES was underscored in a Duke
University case study (tinyurl.
com/yylw6a7n), in which Sarasota, Florida's park planner found
that " having a structured framework, such as SITES, to present at
public meetings when considering
projects, can be a valuable tool.
Certification programs can provide
greater credibility to the ideas being put forth, allowing discussion
to move from attempting to reach
high-level consensus on big-picture
ideas to allowing for greater focus
on more immediate details pertaining to the project at hand. Further,
having a set of guidelines can help
to add metrics to the county's sustainability goals. "
As parks are called on to do
more under increasingly tight fiscal
constraints, municipal policymakers, parks officials and advocates
may find SITES to be a useful offthe-shelf tool to advance parks,
	

Public Parks Enrolled in SITES Certification
Park

Location

Agency

SITES Certification
Status

Blue Hole Regional
Park

Wimberly, Texas

City of Wimberly

Certified - v1

Boeddeker Park

San Francisco,
California

City of San Francisco
Recreation and Parks
Department

Certified - v1

Centennial Park

Nashville,
Tennessee

Nashville Metro Parks and
Recreation

Certified Gold - v2

Evans Parkway
Silver Spring,
Neighborhood Park Maryland

Maryland-National Capital Park
and Planning Commission

Certified - v1

George " Doc "
Cavalliere Park

Scottsdale, Arizona

Scottsdale Parks and
Recreation

Certified - v1

Grant Park
Gateway Project

Atlanta, Georgia

City of Atlanta Parks and
Recreation Department

Certified Gold - v2

Kirke Park

Seattle, Washington Seattle Parks and Recreation

Certified - v1

Woodland
Discovery
Playground

Memphis,
Tennessee

Shelby Farms Park
Conservancy/Shelby County

Certified - v1

Cully Park

Portland, Oregon

Portland Parks and Recreation

Registered v2 -
In process

Creek Delta at
Austin, Texas
Waterloo Greenway

City of Austin and Waterloo
Greenway

Registered v2 -
In process

Earvin Magic
Johnson Park

Los Angeles,
California

County of Los Angeles
Community Development
Commission

Registered v2 -
In process

Enota Park

Atlanta, Georgia

City of Atlanta and Atlanta
BeltLine, Inc.

Registered v2 -
In process

Kingsbury
Commons at
Pease Park

Austin, Texas

City of Austin Parks and
Recreation Department and
Pease Park Conservancy

Registered v2 -
In process

Mary Elizabeth
Branch Park

Austin, Texas

City of Austin and Catellus
Development

Registered v2 -
In process

Pharr Tennis Center Austin, Texas

City of Austin Parks and
Recreation Department

Registered v2 -
In process

Towne Center Park
@ Mueller

Austin, Texas

City of Austin and Catellus
Development

Registered v2 -
In process

Walnut Park

Walnut Park,
California

County of Los Angeles Parks
and Recreation

Registered v2 -
In process

Atlanta BeltLine

Atlanta, Georgia

City of Atlanta and Atlanta
BeltLine, Inc.

Required - SITES
Silver or Gold v2

recreation and environmental conservation efforts that enhance the
quality of life for all people.
For information on these SITES
projects and more, visit sustainable
sites.org/projects. If you are in-

terested in promoting discussions
about SITES in your community,
contact the SITES team at SITES@
gbci.org.
Paul Wessel is Director of Market Development at U.S.
Green Building Council (pwessel@usgbc.org).

PA R K S A N D R E C R E AT I O N .O R G | M A R C H 2 02 1 |

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27
http://www.tinyurl.com/yxufjsog http://www.sustainablesites.org/projects http://www.sustainablesites.org/projects
March 2021 - Parks & Recreation

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